When making a hotel reservation......

[Snowflakey]

Do you correctly indicate how many people will be in the room?

I do, and get charged extra, however most people I've asked said they only indicate 2 people when they may have 4. So it got me thinking.......in reality - how does the hotel really know aside from knocking on everyone's door and checking on who is in the room? Plus, some times when we go out of state we have people who come visit us at the hotel that live in the area. They don't stay the night but may spend a few hours visiting.

So how do you make your reservations? Have you ever fibbed on how many is in your room?

 

[kdonnel]

I always tell them the correct amount but have never stayed anywhere that charged extra for the kids. Once they got to their mid teens we started getting two rooms.

 

[Ellie008]

I always give the correct number. It is only very rarely we are charged extra for the kids.

My fear is that they will overbook and end up putting me in a room with a king bed instead of two doubles (which is what I book) and it is hard to argue that if you said there were only two people sleeping there.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Usually yes. A few times on business I indicated I would be alone, but DW joined me. It was never a problem.

Last fall DW and I were staying at Universal in Orlando. Stepdaughter who lives nearby decided to stay with us one night. We registered her and paid the extra fee because her car was in the parking garage. It would have cost something like $45 for overnight parking if she wasn't a registered guest. By being an official guest the parking fee was reduced to maybe $12. Overall it was cheaper to register her.

If she didn't have her car there, we may possibly have just sneaked her in.

 

[siren0119]

There are liability reasons for not being dishonest about the # of people in your room too. If there is a fire or any other emergency, and an evacuation is needed, they take a head count.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

The bed size concerns me. If there's four of us and I put down two and they only have a king left, what's my recourse?. Also, if there's free breakfast involved, I never fib. I feel like I'm stealing the food, if I didn't have my kids in on the headcount. Now, we need two rooms anyway, or a suite - so its pretty much moot to us any way.

 

[Minnesota!]

Always am honest - I would rather be honest than cheap.

 

[soccerdad72]

I've always been honest. Only in areas where it's heavy vacationers (e.g. Hawaii) do I recall being charged extra beyond two people in the room.

 

[mnrose]

Nope. Never lied about the number of people occupying the room. But, one reason to tell the truth is that often, only enough towels are left for the stated number of people....at least that's what I see. And, for places that offer free breakfast, if everyone in the hotel 'shorted' the number of guests actually occupying the space, they may not have enough food prepared. It's one thing to think 100 people are in your hotel (and plan for that) and quite another to learn that actually 200 are there are prepared to eat.

I just don't see the point about lying about something so trivial.

 

[Nancyg56]

Nope. Never lied about the number of people occupying the room. But, one reason to do so is that often, only enough towels are left for the stated number of people....at least that's what I see.


I am honest as well and the driving reason for me is also the towels. LOL! I refuse to share, even if it means saving a dollar.

 

[tvguy]

I always have verified we have enough beds for the number of people, so I guess I have always told the truth.
We have only run into an extra fee once. But we always book at hotels that include a hot breakfast, so I can see them adding $10 a night for an extra person.

 

[msjprincess]

I tell the truth. Off the top of my head I can't think of any hotel that charged extra for kids. There are some where we need a bigger room since we are a party of 5. There was one hotel that really annoyed me. The regular rooms only slept 4. We had to book a suite for 5. It was just for one night on a road trip. We get to the room and there's a King bedroom and a living room with a sofa bed. I called downstairs if they had a rollaway or something for the 5th person. The front desk person told me they didn't have any and seemed shocked that I was asking. The response was "Oh, did you think there would be a bed for each person?". Umm yes, since you made me book this room instead of the regular room with 2 Queen beds.

 

[AgentMama]

There are liability reasons for not being dishonest about the # of people in your room too. If there is a fire or any other emergency, and an evacuation is needed, they take a head count.

This isn't accurate. There is no way to take headcount during a fire because they have no way of knowing who is and is not onsite during an emergency.

 

[msjprincess]

This isn't accurate. There is no way to take headcount during a fire because they have no way of knowing who is and is not onsite during an emergency.

I agree. They're going to go in and search. It's a hotel, people come and go all the time. It wouldn't make sense to waste precious time checking a guest list.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I always tell the truth. It stuck in my mind that if there ever was an issue like a fire, the hotel would want to know if everyone made it out okay. The first time we took a road trip, we didn't make reservations ahead of time, so when we stopped, DH would go in and only tell them 2 adults. When I pointed out the case for evacuation, he then started telling them that we had an 18-month-old.

I make reservations online, and they always ask for number of adults and children separately, and the ages of the children. We've never been charged extra for our son, but I find it interesting that some hotels - even in the same chain - require us to book a room with 2 double or queen beds, while others allow us to book a king bed (DH, our 3.5-year-old DS, and I have more than enough room sharing a king bed). No price difference either.

 

[amberpi]

Always told the truth. For me and dh, it’s just us and we want a king. When traveling with the babes we always get a suite so the kids have a nice, quiet place to sleep and we have an adult area. Other than a quick holiday inn road trip hotel, we’re not willing to do a single room for family of 4. We’d be tripping over each other in no time!

 

[Moliphino]

I'm generally honest. Once I booked a room for my sister and I (for my cousin's wedding) and my parents didn't decide until later that they were going. I didn't bother to call the hotel and update, but I didn't try to hide anything at check in, either. All four of us were right there. Same when my mom decided at the last minute to tag along to another cousin's wedding.

 

[Snowflakey]

Thanks everyone! Glad to see you all think the same way I do

 

[Cindy's Mom]

This isn't accurate. There is no way to take headcount during a fire because they have no way of knowing who is and is not onsite during an emergency.

I thought the same exact thing, but was too lazy to type it. LOL. My first thought was "its not like its a cruise ship...."

 

[DopeyDame]

There are liability reasons for not being dishonest about the # of people in your room too. If there is a fire or any other emergency, and an evacuation is needed, they take a head count.

They definitely do not do a headcount based on the room reservations.
This isn't grade school where every person coming in and out of the building is accounted for at all times. You're allowed to leave your hotel room, and people who aren't registered are allowed to be in the building.

ETA - didn't mean to pile on. I had started to write the response and didn't get around to finishing it until others had posted.